THIEF (2014) – Review

To catch a Thief…

THIEF (2014) is a single-player action/stealth/fantasy game from developer Edios Montreal and publisher Square Enix. You are Garrett, a Master Thief, who steals from the rich to well, profit. The City, the name of the area Garrett pilfers a town ravaged with disease and poverty. The wealthy of The City lives on the outskirts—away from the people. But, their world is corrupt, and ruled by The Baron who brutality is without measure. The poor are revolting against the guards. Like Garrett, these misgivings are what you will use as an advantage to stealthy steal the wealth of The City right from under them. The general plot of Thief is to steal valuable items without the guards detecting your Master Thief.

When a player finds himself involved with locating his apprentice the story blends the sneaking and thieving tasks into the narrative. The backdrop of The City is more or less repeated so the scenery never feels new. The game mechanics are intuitive. Lingering in the shadows waiting for the optimum moment to thief is what makes up of good gaming. Due to the over telling during the cut scenes rendered the plot predictably.

For a game that developed for a next-gen console the graphics were not up to par. The backdrops appeared muted—even the cut scenes the characters did not move fluidly. During gameplay, I found myself more or less trying to get through each chapter, snooping around hoping that the next goal would be better. The Barron, the story’s main antagonist wasn’t unlike many of other game antagonist—seeking a magical stone or item that when combined with other parts of the whole stand to gain immeasurable wealth and power. There is no secret to The Barron’s intentions—also, there not being any mystery to Garrett’s intention to prevent The Barron from obtaining all the pieces of the stone.

The narrative aspect of the game gave away much of the story in the cut scenes that made the actual gameplay aspect felt muted. The underlying story—where Garrett teams up with another thief, Erin, who steals brutally—she kills for no reason. The whole point of the game is to get through it undetected. The main protagonist eventually gets too caught up in trying to find his former apprentice, Erin, through ill guided cut scenes and story exposition. The intended “freedom” of the player finding his own story in the game is lost via set pathways and actions to give the impression of multiple options during gameplay.

In all, Thief (2014) was disappointing. Sure, you get to go through the game mostly stealing purses and prized artwork, but the hapless aspect of the narrative fumbled my gaming experience.